Salient Secret

Chapter 51

"What the hell is he doing here?" 

"You wankers had one job!" Palmer says just as unsettled as I am. 

"Salutis wanted him to make imperium for them and then they were going to kill him. We can't let that happen," Kai explains. 

"Why not?" I ask knowing Kai couldn't possibly be defending Dane. 

"Picture this, hundreds of men and women given the strongest powers they could ever imagine, do you honestly think all of them will simply comply. The power will get to their heads. You think Salutis will ask them nicely to comply? No, they will find a way to control fulminares, or they will become dangerous fulminares. We can't take that risk," he explains.  

"Yeah okay. What do we do with him now?"

"I say we kill him," Palmer says looking at unconscious Dane laying in front of us. 

"I second that," I say.

"No. It's murder," Lorenzo says trying to be the reasonable one as if he didn't capture my friend and torture him a few days ago.

"If we let him go, he will murder us," Palmer argues. She's right, but murder can't be our only solution.

"Let me go to Salutis, you said Dane mentioned a board? We have to speak to them then, the one lady you spoke to can't be our only option. And did you see Arlo?" I say desperate to find another way. 

"The last time I checked the tracker it said he was there," Kai says.

"Well then check it now," Palmer says impatiently and Kai pulls the tablet from his bag.

"Oh no."

"What?" we all ask. 

"It says he is right here," you have got to be joking. I put my hands on Dane and absorb the power, he turns into Arlo. 

"Shit." 

"I knew it couldn't have been so easy," Lorenzo says.  

"Why would Dane cloak Arlo? And where is he?" I'm really getting tired of this Tom and Jerry game we're playing with Dane. 

"Doctor Stevens would never let this kind of thing happen-"

"Of course you would know," Lorenzo says under a fake cough, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure out what he means. 

"As I was saying, she wouldn't let this happen, Dane must have done something to Doctor Stevens," he concludes.

"How is he cloaking people?" Lorenzo asks.

"We can find out right now," I say looking at Arlo on the floor, Palmer understands what I'm saying and reads Arlo's mind. 

"Blank. He must have been unconscious when he was cloaked, which means that Dane is catching on." 

"Take me to Salutis now, I say to Kai.

"What are you going to do?" Palmer asks.

"We need to tell them that they've already been compromised," Kai nods and shifts into Dane. He takes my hand and in a split second we're standing in an office.

 Kai walks behind the desk, "Dammit, no body." 

"If you're looking for me, I'm right here," Dane says behind us so we both whip around. "You guys are so predictable," he continues,  he must be invisible since we can hear him but not see him. Coward.

I feel a needle piercing my neck, not this again

... 

everything

goes

black.

Kai's pov

I wake up  to Palmer and Lorenzo hovering over me, I sit up quickly when I realize what just happened, "Where's Avery?" 

"We were about to ask you the same thing," Lorenzo answers. 

"What happened?" Palmer asks. 

"I don't know, we got to Doctor Stevens' office and then we heard Dane talking, but he was invisible...then I felt a needle pierce my neck and then I woke up here. I gotta go back."

"No K-" before Lorenzo could finish those words I find myself back in the office, but there's no sign of Avery or Dane anywhere. 

"Hello, have you seen a tall, beautiful girl, brown hair and eyes?" I ask a cleaner rolling her cart along the hallway. She shakes her head. 

"Who are you?" A man in a suit asks and I teleport downstairs to the jails, I search every single one, she's not here. I check the garage, I even check the hotel where our bags are...and still nothing. I teleport back to Palmer and Lorenzo, my hands running through my hair,I lost her.

"Did you find her?" Palmer asks and I just shake my head. I have an idea.

*****

"WHERE IS SHE!" I say punching Arlo again in his abdomen, I have him tied up by his wrists, he is  the only person who knows where Dane would take her. 

"Kai, I read his mind he doesn't know."

"LIAR!" I say punching Arlo again and again. 

"Bro. He doesn't know," Lorenzo says standing between Arlo and I. 

"Move out my way," I say with no expression in my voice, when he doesn't move I get so mad that I want to push him out of the way but the next thing I know, it's all black again. 

*****

"I 'convinced' Avery's parents that she's sleeping over by me for a while." 

"What are we going to do about him?"

"We have to find her."

I hear Palmer and Lorenzo whispering.

"What did you do to me?" 

"Oh shit," I hear one of them say. 

"I just calmed you down," Palmer replies. 

"I'm calm," I say even though I am not calm at all, knowing Avery is out there somewhere with Dane is driving me insane. 

"Good because Sammy has been asking for you," Lorenzo says while helping me up. I sit up and notice that we're in Melanie's apartment.

"Can I come in now?" I hear Sammy say by the door.

"Of course you can," I say with open arms and he runs to me and holds on to me tight."You missed me huh," I say messing up his hair.

"A little bit."

"A little bit???"

"Yes, Melanie gave me ice cream every day," he says looking guilty.

"In my defense he is addicted to that stuff," Melanie says popping her head in the door.

"Thanks again for watching him."

"He is welcome here anytime," she says with a warm smile. For a second I almost forget that she abandoned him when he was only 2 years old.

I take Sammy home and put him to bed. I sit down at the desk and look at the apartment listings on the screen...What? I like it here, okay yes, you caught me, Avery lives here, I don't want to be anywhere else. I close the site and stare at my wallpaper, it's a picture of Avery in the hospital, it was part of the vogue photoshoot thing, she's posing with a bar of soap... a strange creature I tell you.

"I'll find you."